Case Study #1: The Importance of Urgency

It’s easy to get so caught up in doing the work of getting your direct mail out the door, that you forget to sit down – with your entire team, creative people, numbers people, even program people – and examine the results of your efforts.

 

As a creative consultant, I’ll take writing over numbers-crunching any day of the week. But I don’t let myself off the hook because I know that taking a close look at those numbers can give me critical feedback about the direct mail I write.

Welcome to Case Study #1: The Importance of Urgency

One of my smaller clients is a regional educational institution. They mail 5 appeals a year to an average audience of 17,000. Response is fair, with appeals netting an average of $7,000.

Some of the mailings, of course, are blockbusters, netting twice that amount, while others fall far short of the average. And generally, the whole team can anticipate how any given appeal will do by looking at how a theme historically performs, how the time of year affects giving, and a host of other smaller factors.

(This is where having a good numbers person on your team can be such an advantage. I can only ballpark, but a numbers guru can spin magical calculations that can provide you with invaluable information!)

A few weeks ago, we sat down and looked at the previous year’s appeal results. We were surprised to discover that while overall, the appeals had performed better than in previous years, one mailing in particular had performed 84% less than average.

I was shocked. The theme was a touching one, the letter was packed with vivid imagery, and the package included the donor directly (i.e./it had plenty of “you” and “your” statements). But upon re-reading the copy, and comparing it to the other packages we’d mailed last year, I realized there was one critical element missing: the urgency.

We were asking for an ongoing program, one that was scheduled six months out. Yes, it was a fantastic and moving initiative. And yes, it desperately needed funding. But there wasn’t an urgency to the need.

I took that lesson and applied it to the next appeal – which ended up being the best appeal of the year.

Actually, I guess there are two lessons here: the one about urgency, of course. And another about failure. Look closely at those mailings that fail. They could tell you something crucial about your audience and lead you, ultimately, to greater success.

How often do you look at numbers? What have you discovered? I'd love to hear below!